1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system and more particularly to a printing system which can reduce the power consumption during idle time by sending a command to release a idle state to a printer prior to a start of printing and, at the same time, an information equipment producing printing data (hereinafter referred to as a host computer) starts the generation of the printing data and then the host computer transfers created printing data to the printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, printing data created by a personal computer, word processor and other various information devices is supplied to a printer. On the other hand, by release data sent from the host computer, the printer starts warming-up from a idle state. When warming-up is complete, the printer is in the state where the printing is done. If the printer remains in the state where printing is possible following warming-up immediately after the power is on, the power consumption in the dormant state becomes great. The technology of this kind is disclosed in Japanese Provisional Publication No. 9-62466. Hereinafter, the idle state is referred to as a state where the warming-up is not made after the printer is turned ON.
However, the above conventional technology presents a problem. That is, the power consumption is different between the idle state where a warming-up start command is waited by the host computer and the state where the warming-up is complete and printing is possible. It is desirous that the printer is controlled so as to receive printing data from the host computer immediately after the warming-up is complete and the printer moves to a idle state immediately after the printing is complete.
However, the timing at which printing data is transferred from the host computer to the printer is different according to computational processing capability of the host computer and the quality and contents of printing data.
The generation of printing data is terminated at a short time if a document has simple character. In the case of having complicated image data, it takes long time to generate printing data.
Warming-up time varies depending on the printer. Even if the warming-up of the printer is complete, in some cases, a state where printing data is transferred from the host computer for a long time. This causes a waste of power.
On the other hand, there is a case where printing data is generated by the host computer before the warming-up of the printer is terminated. At this point, since the host computer has to wait for the transfer of printing data, the effective use of the memory resource is interfered. That is, since the host computer has to hold printing data for processing of calculation before the transfer of the printing data is terminated, the memory cannot be used for other operational processing.